Rideshare in Chicago During COVID-19
Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement at UIC
October 01, 2021
Executive Summary
Rideshare trips decreased by 62 million (55%) in 2020 compared to 2019. From late March 2020 onwards, only 27 million rideshare trips were taken in Chicago, about 60 million fewer trips compared to the same period in 2019.
Weekday trips shifted to the afternoon, and average trip duration fell by 3 minutes (-15%), but average trip distance and fare remained unchanged.
Trip origins and destinations were mostly unchanged. Excluding airport trips (6%-9% of all trips), the most common rides were short trips to and from the Loop and nearby areas. In both 2019 and 2020, the top 3 Community Areas (The Loop, Near North Side, and Near West Side) accounted for over 40% of all rideshare trips within the city.
While few rideshare trips were made on the South and West Sides compared to other parts of the city, rideshare trip behavior was less affected during the pandemic. For example, one Census Tract in the West Side neighborhood of Austin was middle of the pack for trip pickups in 2019 (56th percentile). Pickups were almost cut in half in 2020, but the tract qualified as one of the more active pickup spots in the city (75th percentile).
The number of active drivers completing 1+ trip per month decreased by 45,000 (-64%) after the Stay-at-Home Order went into effect. This trend was also paired by a large increase in the number of inactive drivers, defined as those who completed zero trips despite being eligible to drive in Chicago that month. During this period, a higher percentage of drivers were inactive (64%) compared to 2019 (34%). A higher percentage of trips (+7%) were made by drivers with over a year’s experience, both before and after the Stay-at-Home Order went into effect.
Trips
Daily Trips
This analysis uses the day that Governor Pritzker’s Stay-at-Home Order went into effect (March 21st), as a way to delineate between two time frames:
- “Pre-COVID” (1/1-3/21) and
- “Post-COVID” (3/21-12/31)
As the data below suggest, the use of a single date to mark the onset of the pandemic is an oversimplification, but this allows for a clean comparison of rideshare trends year-over-year.
Prior to the Stay-at-Home Order going into effect, trips were already down by about 7 percent year-over-year. However, the bulk of the decline in rideshare occurred in the following 9 months. From late March 2020 onwards, only 27 million rideshare trips were taken in Chicago, about 60 million fewer trips compared to the same period in 2019.
| Period | 2019 | 2020 | Change | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-COVID (1/1-3/21) | 24,413,752 | 22,610,225 | -1,803,527 | -7% |
| Post-COVID (3/21-12/31) | 87,064,565 | 27,261,160 | -59,803,405 | -69% |
| Total | 111,478,317 | 49,871,385 | -61,606,932 | -55% |
Trips Around 3/21/20 Stay-at-Home Order
It is clear that behavior changed in March even before the Stay-at-Home Order, as trips per day decreased significantly after Saturday, March 14th, 2020, a full week before the Order went into effect. Note that the earlier fluctuations in January and February correspond to weekday versus weekend trips.
Monthly Trips
Trips by Day of Week and Hour of Day
Day of Week
While the number of trips were down significantly in the 2020 Post-COVID period compared to 2019, rideshare trips by day exhibited the same pattern across years and times periods; relatively low Monday through Wednesday before rising into the weekend and peaking Saturday.
Hour of Day
Breaking out trips by hour of the day, it is clear that trips were shifted outside of peak hours after the Stay-at-Home order went into effect. Weekend trips by hour (dashed line) still exhibited a late night surge, but the twin peaks of the morning and evening rush during weekdays (solid line) are less noticeable. It is clear that a higher proportion of weekday trips took place during the late afternoon hours in the 2020 Post-COVID period compared to 2019.
Trip Characteristics
Distance
Prior to the Stay-at-Home Order going into effect, trips were 6.4 miles long on average, a 9 percent increase year-over-year. From late March 2020 onwards, however, the average trip distance increased to only slightly to 6.5 miles, a 1.7 percent increase compared to the same Post-COVID period in 2019.
| Period | 2019 | 2020 | Change | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-COVID | 5.86 | 6.39 | 0.53 | 9.0% |
| Post-COVID | 6.43 | 6.53 | 0.11 | 1.7% |
Duration
While average trip distance increased slightly, the average trip duration fell significantly in 2020. After March 21, 2020, the average trip time was 15.9 minutes, a 15 percent decrease compared to the same period in 2019. This finding aligns with Manzo and Bruno’s analysis based on a sample of trips from September 2019 and September 2020 which found a 16 percent decline in average trip duration due to a decrease in congestion.
| Period | 2019 | 2020 | Change | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-COVID | 17.5 | 16.9 | -0.6 | -3% |
| Post-COVID | 18.6 | 15.9 | -2.7 | -15% |
Fares
The average trip fare in 2020 was about $0.80 higher in the first three months of the year compared to the same period in 2019, a 7.4 percent increase. After the Stay-at-Home Order went into effect, however, the average trip fare in 2020 was about the same as in 2019.
| Period | 2019 | 2020 | Change | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-COVID | $10.79 | $11.59 | $0.80 | 7.4% |
| Post-COVID | $12.26 | $12.34 | $0.08 | 0.7% |
Spatial Distribution of Trips, Post-COVID
The spatial distribution of rideshare trips that started and ended within the City of Chicago during the Pre-COVID period (1/1-3/21) of 2019 and 2020 were very similar. The maps below display how spatial patterns changed after the Stay-at-Home Order went into effect, relative to 2019.
The top 20 percent of Census Tracts with the most essential workers are outlined in black. At least 532 essential workers reside in each of these tracts. Combined, these tracts are home to 121,060 (41.5%) of the city’s 293,575 essential workers. “Essential workers” are defined as: healthcare practitioners and technical occupations; healthcare support occupations; food preparation and serving related occupations; building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations; and personal care and service occupations.
Origin-Destination
The spatial distribution of rideshare origins and destinations are very similar. Trips are highly concentrated around the downtown core - note the logarithmic scale of each map. While the number of trips in 2020 cratered compared to the same period in 2019, most trips started or ended around the central business district. In the Post-COVID periods of both 2019 and 2020, the top three community areas (The Loop, Near North Side, and Near West Side) accounted for over 40 percent of all rideshare trips within the city.
The widespread decline in the volume of trips, however, does mask some relative changes in neighborhood rideshare usage. The second map shows how the percentile rank of each Census Tract changed during the Post-COVID period in 2020 versus 2019. For example, one tract in the West Side neighborhood of Austin was middle of the pack for trip pickups in 2019 (56th percentile). Pickups were almost cut in half in 2020, but the tract qualified as one of the more active pickup spots in the city (75th percentile). Neighborhoods on the South and West Sides saw a relative increase in their percentile rank, indicating an inelastic demand for rideshare. While few rideshare trips were made in these areas compared to other parts of the city, rideshare trip behavior was less affected during the pandemic.
These South and West Side neighborhoods include some areas with a high concentration of essential workers, but the parts of the Southwest and Northwest Sides that saw the largest relative dropoff in their trip ranking are also home to many essential workers.